New Moon in Pisces: The Space Between

Today, March 6, we welcome the New Moon in the mutable water sign of Pisces, the non-dual Fishes. It’s a powerful lunation, and many of us have been feeling the oceanic overwhelm tendencies. Neptune-Poseidon, ruler of Pisces, is conjunct this New Moon, enhancing the depths. In addition, Uranus is changing signs today, entering Taurus for a seven-year sojourn. And, last but not least, Mercury is doing his retrograde dance beginning today and lasting until March 28^th, 2019.

If you’re feeling a bit like you’re floating down a stream with the sounds of a rushing waterfall the size of Niagara Falls up ahead, without a raft, let alone an oar, you’re not alone.

There is not much we can control right now. Of course, that’s always the case from the point of view of the Infinite. But this level of surrender in this time of Pisces is felt deeply on an embodied level. Your Soul is in charge. Not your separate volition.

Perhaps we catch sight of a branch jutting into the stream from the riverbank. We grab hold of it and stay afloat to catch our breath, hauling ourselves out of the turbulence in order to reach a new shore. One we’ve never experienced before. It’s all undiscovered terrain. And we are going to acquire new tools and techniques to navigate. It’s all fresh, unknown territory.

The Space Between is that time on the downstream float, where we have no idea what the outcome will be, or where Life’s River is leading us. How we make use of that time makes all the difference in the world. Will we endure it? Will we panic, fret, bemoan our fate? Or will we trust, breathe, even enjoy? This is the gap between actions, thoughts, projects, outcomes, directions.

“I cultivate empty space as a way of life in the creative process.” ~ Josh Waitzkin, U.S. chess champion portrayed in Searching for Bobby Fisher 

  

We’re so conditioned in our modern culture to do, do, do, that when we are in the Space Between, we fear – am I wasting time? If I float, will I be sideswiped by the unexpected? Must I continue to brace, to always be prepared? We forget that cultivating empty space is essential in the art of living. How else are we to attract that original thought to emerge from the Ground of Being? We need time – and space – to hear, and listen, to the muse!

Art Imitates Life: Stop, Look, and Sea

Untitled, Vija Celmins 1970

Last weekend, my partner and I visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in order to check out a Paul Klee exhibit. Just before I left the museum, we reviewed the museum map to see what else was on display. We saw a listing, “Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory,” ending March 31, 2019. The tag line, “Stop, Look, and See,” caught my eye. We wandered over to check it out, and were both pleasantly surprised. It was the best contemporary art collection I’d seen in a long time.

Vija Celmins (b. 1938) is a Latvian-American artist whose family escaped the Soviet occupation during WWII, first taking refuge in Germany and ultimately the United States. She settled in Southern California and ultimately in NYC. Having very little possessions during her art schooling at UCLA, she learned to paint only that which was in the space right in front of her: a hot plate, a table fan, a lamp, a space heater.

Eventually, she became transfixed with black and white seascape drawings, minutely recreating open ocean waves from intricate photos of waves, over and over again. Using only a graphite pencil on paper, Vija insisted on going into finer and finer depths, to perfect what she saw in her mind’s eye “to fix the image in memory.” The level of detail of her waves is stupendous.

Untitled (Regular Desert), Vija Celmins 1973

Eventually, Vija discovered the landscape of the deserts, and repeated the effort to draw the rocky desert floor, again and again, finer and finer down to the tiniest grains of sand. Each individual rock was recreated, never stopping until the scene neared perfection. Then, she turned to the black night sky, the stars, and with her pencil and paper, revealed the cosmos over and over and over again.

Untitled (Cassiopeia), Vija Celmins 1973

The artist's work is stunning, inspiring, and instructive. Can you imagine the hours upon hours upon hours it would take to depict the tiniest rock in the desert, the placement of a star in the night sky, the protrusion of a single lapping wave on the ocean?

To an artist self, what is time? And even more important, is this a waste of time? Vija has dedicated her entire life to exploring what is in the space, in the finest detail. When we remove the judgement of time, the illusion of needing to prepare for a future, to to produce, be productive, we are left with the Now. Pure Presence.

And it is art that plants us firmly in that Now. Writing, music, drawing; poetry, dance, cooking; lovemaking, gardening, Nature-walking – it is art created in the Space Between. This is where the magic lives.

The Space where Nothing and Everything Occurs

I’m reminded of the Christopher Nolan movie Inception (2010), with Leo DeCaprio and Co., in which the dream architects construct a dream within a dream with a dream-scape. The film’s crescendo extends a few seconds into a several minutes. 

A van containing the sleeping heroes lurches backwards off a bridge into a river. Layers upon layers of happenings are occurring simultaneously, down to the micro-minutia, in the deepest seas of the unconscious. Time is slowed down almost to a halt, while the other members of the team figure out a way to wake up the dreamer to save the heroes’ lives. Invoking The Space Between.

When things feel they are dangerously speeding ahead, we can find time by taking a breath. We can not only slow time, we can stop it, by instantaneously and spontaneously dropping into the Now. The Now is centered in the belly, the heart, the seat of the soul, the Ground of Being. This is the space and the place where Nothing and Everything occurs all at once.

When there is the pause between jobs, projects, duties, tasks, busy-ness, with our action-addicted, extrovert-biased society, we get antsy. The Unknown, the Void – what to do? I’m nervous! Let me reach for a drink, a smoke, a TV show to binge watch, a chocolate bar. Let me make another plan, fill up the space! The Space must be contained lest I lose my identity, sense of Self! Right?

It is at these times we can experiment with living sans identification. Floating, flowing. Allowing, seeing, witnessing. What. Arises. Next.

Never fear. Something will happen. And you’ll notice, it is exactly perfect.

If you’re experiencing anxiety, perhaps that is exactly what is also meant to arise. Perhaps it’s okay to have an “off day” or three, while something New is being borne.

It is in the discomfort of the Space Between that genius flashes of insight, life-changing, often emerge.

Recently, I was deeply disturbed about a project I needed to quit that involved a great deal of responsibility and other people. I went to the seaside to contemplate in Nature, no distractions. Boy, did I have a couple of restless nights as my psyche wrestled with the issue. No fun! But after three days in my hellish “vision quest,” I woke up calmly on the final morning, and drafted a resignation letter to leave the project.

Instantly, I began feeling better. Heart rate dropping, irritability diminishing. I knew what I needed to do. It’s been a lifelong practice of learning to disappoint other people to be true to myself. I have the tools and the courage to do it, when necessary. But it required that discomfort in the liminal space, the Unknown, to have my psyche work out the issue.

Remember, discomfort does not automatically imply you are doing something wrong. Sometimes, sitting, waiting, experiencing without knowledge of goal or intended outcome, is exactly what is needed.

At this time of the New Moon in Pisces, in which the known and the unknown ebb back and forth like waves on the open ocean, give yourself time to float. Step into the Space Between, the Now, and allow the miracle to emerge.

A Sunday at SF MOMA

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.